List of Birds of Sierra Leone

Until recently, Sierra Leone was a country that no ‘sensible’ birder would dream of visiting, ravaged by more than ten years of civil wars that were exemplified by the horror and barbaric practice of amputation by machete. Since 2004, however, the situation has dramatically changed, and whilst there is no denying that the scars of war and poverty are still very much part of everyday life in Sierra Leone, the country is now safe to visit and birders, and other tourists, are beginning to return.

• Abdim’s stork
• Abyssinian ground hornbill
• Abyssinian roller
• Afep pigeon
• African blue flycatcher
• African broadbill
• African crake
• African cuckoo
• African cuckoo-hawk
• African darter
• African dwarf kingfisher
• African emerald cuckoo
• African fin-foot
• African firefinch
• African fish-eagle
• African forest flycatcher
• African golden oriole
• African gray hornbill
• African gray woodpecker
• African green pigeon
• African harrier hawk
• African hawk-eagle
• African hobby
• African jacana
• African open bill
• African paradise flycatcher
• African pied hornbill
• African pied wagtail
• African pigmy goose
• African pitta
• African pygmy kingfisher
• African rail
• African scop’s owl
• African shrike flycatcher
• African silver-bill
• African skimmer
• African spoonbill
• African spotted creeper
• African stone-chat
• African swamphen
• African swift
• African thrush
• African wood owl
• African yellow white-eye
• African-palm swift
• Ahanta francolin
• Akun eagle-owl
• Allen’s gallinule
• Alpine swift
• American golden-plover
• Ansorge’s greenbul
• Arctic tern
• Ashy flycatcher
• Ayres’s eagle
• Baillon’s crake
• Baka indigobird
• Balearic shearwater
• Ballman’s malimbe
• Banded martin
• Banded snake-eagle
• Band-rumped storm petrel
• Bank swallow
• Bar-breasted firefinch
• Barn owl
• Barn swallow
• Barred warbler
• Bar-tailed godwit
• Bat hawk
• Bateleur
• Bates’s swift
• Baumann’s greenbul
• Beaudouin’s snake-eagle
• Beautiful sunbird
• Black bee-eater
• Black coucal
• Black crake
• Black cuckoo

• Black dwarf hornbill
• Black goshawk
• Black heron
• Black kite
• Black noddy
• Black scimitar-bill
• Black spine-tail
• Black tern
• Black-and-white casqued hornbill
• Black-and-white mannikin
• Black-and-white shrike flycatcher
• Black-bellied bustard
• Black-bellied firefinch
• Black-bellied plover
• Black-bellied storm petrel
• Blackcap babbler
• Blackcap illadopsis
• Black-caped apalis
• Black-capped rufous-warbler
• Black-casqued hornbill
• Black-crowned crane
• Black-crowned night-heron
• Black-crowned tchagra
• Black-faced firefinch
• Black-faced quail-finch
• Black-headed gull
• Black-headed heron
• Black-headed paradise flycatcher
• Black-headed weaver
• Black-necked cisticola
• Black-necked weaver
• Black-rumped buttonquail
• Black-rumped waxbill
• Black-shouldered nightjar
• Black-tailed godwit
• Black-throated coucal
• Black-winged bishop
• Black-winged kite
• Black-winged oriole
• Black-winged stilt
• Blue cuckoo-shrike
• Blue malkoha
• Blue moustached bee-eater
• Blue quail
• Blue rock thrush
• Blue-bellied roller
• Blue-billed malimbe
• Blue-breasted kingfisher
• Blue-cheeked bee-eater
• Blue-headed crested flycatcher
• Blue-headed wood-dove
• Blue-shouldered robin-chat
• Blue-spotted wood-dove
• Blue-throated brown sunbird
• Blue-throated roller
• Bluff-spotted flufftail
• Booted eagle
• Bristle-nosed barbet
• Broad-billed roller
• Bronze mannikin
• Bronze-tailed glossy-starling
• Brown babbler
• Brown booby
• Brown illadopsis
• Brown noddy
• Brown snake-eagle
• Brown-backed woodpecker
• Brown-cheeked hornbill
• Brown-chested alethe
• Brown-crowned tchagra
• Brown-eared woodpecker
• Brown-necked parrot
• Brown-rumped bunting
• Brown-throated wattle-eye
• Brubru
• Buff-breasted sandpiper
• Buff-spotted woodpecker

• Buff-throated sunbird
• Bush petronia
• Cabanis’s bunting
• Cameroon indigobird
• Capuchin babbler
• Cardinal woodpecker
• Carmelite sunbird
• Caspian plover
• Caspian tern
• Cassin’s flycatcher
• Cassin’s hawk eagle
• Cassin’s honeyguide
• Cassin’s spine-tail
• Cattle egret
• Chattering cisticola
• Chestnut-bellied helmet shrike
• Chestnut-breasted negro-finch
• Chestnut-capped flycatcher
• Chestnut-winged starling
• Chocolate-backed kingfisher
• Collared pratincole
• Collared sunbird
• Common bulbul
• Common buzzard
• Common cuckoo
• Common gonolek
• Common grasshopper warbler
• Common greenshank
• Common house-martin
• Common nightingale
• Common quail
• Common redshank
• Common redstart
• Common ringed plover
• Common rock thrush
• Common sandpiper
• Common snipe
• Common swift
• Common tern
• Common waxbill
• Compact weaver
• Congo serpent-eagle
• Copper sunbird
• Copper-tailed starling
• Cory’s shearwater
• Crested guineafowl
• Crested lark
• Crested malimbe
• Crimson seed-cracker
• Croaking cisticola
• Crowned eagle
• Curlew sandpiper
• Dark-chanting goshawk
• Denham’s bustard
• Dideric cuckoo
• Dollarbird
• Double-spurred francolin
• Double-toothed barbet
• Dunlin
• Dusky long-tailed cuckoo
• Dusky-blue flycatcher
• Dusky-crested flycatcher
• Dusky-tit
• Dwarf bittern
• Dybwosky’s twin-spot
• Eastern olive sunbird
• Egyptian goose
• Egyptian plover
• Emerald starling
• Eurasian blackcap
• Eurasian golden oriole
• Eurasian hoopoe
• Eurasian kestrel
• Eurasian marsh-harrier
• Eurasian moorhen
• Eurasian nightjar
• Eurasian oystercatcher

• Eurasian reed warbler
• Eurasian thick-knee
• Eurasian turtle dove
• Eurasian wryneck
• European bee-eater
• European golden-plover
• European honey buzzard
• European pied flycatcher
• European storm petrel
• Fan-tailed grass-bird
• Fanti drongo
• Fanti sawwing
• Fea’s petrel
• Fernando po batis
• Ferruginous pochard
• Fiery-breasted bush-shrike
• Fiery-necked nightjar
• Fine-spotted woodpecker
• Finsch’s flycatcher-thrush
• Fire-bellied woodpecker
• Forbe’s plover
• Forest robin
• Forest scrub robin
• Four-banded sandgrouse
• Fox kestrel
• Fraser’s eagle owl
• Freckled nightjar
• Fulvous whistling duck
• Gabon woodpecker
• Garden warbler
• Garganey
• Ghana cuckoo-shrike
• Giant kingfisher
• Glossy ibis
• Glossy-backed drongo
• Golden greenbul
• Goliath heron
• Gosling’s bunting
• Grasshopper buzzard
• Gray greenbul
• Gray ground thrush
• Gray heron
• Gray kestrel
• Gray long-bill
• Gray tit flycatcher
• Gray-headed bristle-bill
• Gray-headed bush-shrike
• Gray-headed gull
• Gray-headed kingfisher
• Gray-headed negro-finch
• Gray-headed olive-back
• Gray-headed sparrow
• Grayish eagle-owl
• Gray-rumped swallow
• Gray-throated rail
• Gray-throated rail
• Gray-throated tit-flycatcher
• Gray-winged robin-chat
• Great blue turaco
• Great egret
• Great reed warbler
• Great snipe
• Greater flamingo
• Greater honeyguide
• Greater painted snipe
• Greater racket-tailed drongo
• Great-spotted cuckoo
• Green crombec
• Green hylia
• Green sandpiper
• Green sunbird
• Green wood hoopoe
• Green-backed camaroptera
• Green-backed twin-spot
• Green-headed sunbird
• Green-tailed bristle-bill
• Guinea turaco

• Gull-billed tern
• Hadada ibis
• Hairy-breasted barbet
• Hamerkop
• Hartlaub’s duck
• Helmeted guineafowl
• Heuglin’s masked weaver
• Honeyguide greenbul
• Hooded vulture
• Icterine greenbul
• Intermediate egret
• Jack snipe
• Jambandu indigobird
• Johanna’s sunbird
• Kemp’s long-bill
• Kentish plover
• Kitilitz’s plover
• Klaas’s cuckoo
• Knob-billed duck
• Lagden’s bush-shrike
• Large-billed puffback
• Latham’s falcon
• Laughing dove
• Lavender waxbill
• Leach’s storm petrel
• Leaf-love
• Least honeyguide
• Lemon dove
• Lemon-bellied crombec
• Lesser black-backed gull
• Lesser blue-eared glossy-starling
• Lesser flamingo
• Lesser honeyguide
• Lesser jacana
• Lesser kestrel
• Lesser moorhen
• Lesser-striped swallow
• Levaillant’s cuckoo
• Little bee-eater
• Little bittern
• Little crake
• Little egret
• Little gray flycatcher
• Little grebe
• Little green sunbird
• Little green woodpecker
• Little greenbul
• Little gull
• Little ringed plover
• Little stint
• Little swift
• Little tern
• Lizard buzzard
• Long-billed pipit
• Long-crested eagle
• Long-tailed cormorant
• Long-tailed glossy-starling
• Long-tailed hawk
• Long-tailed jaeger
• Long-tailed nightjar
• Lowland akalat
• Lyre-tailed honeyguide
• Magpie mannikin
• Malachite kingfisher
• Manx shearwater
• Many-colored bush-shrike
• Marabou stork
• Marsh sandpiper
• Marsh tchagra
• Martial eagle
• Maxwell’s black weaver
• Melancholy woodpecker
• Melodious warbler
• Montagu’s harrier
• Mottled spine-tail
• Mottled swift
• Mountain wagtail

• Mouse-brown bird
• Moustached grass warbler
• Naked-faced barbet
• Namaqua dove
• Narina trogon
• Narrow-tailed starling
• Nimba flycatcher
• Nkulengu rail
• Northern black flycatcher
• Northern carmine bee-eater
• Northern crombec
• Northern gannet
• Northern pintail
• Northern puffback
• Northern wheatear
• Northern white-faced owl
• Olivaceous flycatcher
• Olive ibis
• Olive-bellied sunbird
• Olive-green camaroptera
• Olive-long-tailed cuckoo
• Orange bishop
• Orange weaver
• Orange-cheeked waxbill
• Oriole warbler
• Ortolan bunting
• Osprey
• Pale flycatcher
• Pale-breasted illadopsis
• Pale-fronted negro-finch
• Pale-winged indigobird
• Pallid harrier
• Pallid swift
• Palm-nut vulture
• Parasitic jaeger
• Parasitic weaver
• Pearl-spotted owlet
• Pectoral sandpiper
• Pel’s fishing owl
• Pennant-winged nightjar
• Peregrine falcon
• Piapiac
• Pied crow
• Pied cuckoo
• Pied kingfisher
• Pied-winged swallow
• Pink-backed pelican
• Pin-tailed whydah
• Piping hornbill
• Plain greenbul
• Plain nightjar
• Plain swift
• Plain-backed pipit
• Pomarine jaeger
• Preuss’s swallow
• Preuss’s weaver
• Purple glossy-starling
• Purple heron
• Purple-throated cuckoo-shrike
• Puvel’s illadopsis
• Pygmy sunbird
• Quail-finch
• Red knot
• Red phalarope
• Red-billed dwarf hornbill
• Red-billed dwarf hornbill
• Red-billed firefinch
• Red-billed quelea
• Red-cheeked wattle-eye
• Red-chested cuckoo
• Red-chested flufftail
• Red-chested goshawk
• Red-chested owlet
• Red-chested swallow
• Red-collared widowbird
• Red-eyed dove
• Red-faced cisticola

• Red-faced pytilia
• Red-fronted ant-pecker
• Red-headed lovebird
• Red-headed malimbe
• Red-headed quelea
• Red-necked buzzard
• Red-necked falcon
• Red-necked phalarope
• Red-pate cisticola
• Red-rumped swallow
• Red-rumped tinkerbird
• Red-shouldered cuckoo shrike
• Red-tailed bristle-bill
• Red-tailed greenbul
• Red-thighed sparrow-hawk
• Red-throated bee-eater
• Red-throated pipit
• Red-vented malimbe
• Red-winged prinia
• Red-winged pytilia
• Rock martin
• Rock pratincole
• Rock-loving cisticola
• Roseate tern
• Rose-ringed parakeet
• Royal tern
• Ruddy turnstone
• Ruff
• Rufous fishing owl
• Rufous-chested swallow
• Rufous-crowned eremomela
• Rufous-crowned roller
• Rufous-napped lark
• Rufous-rumped lark
• Rufous-sided broadbill
• Rufous-winged illadopsis
• Ruppell’s griffon
• Sabine’s gull
• Sabine’s spine-tail
• Sacred ibis
• Saddle-billed stork
• Sanderling
• Sandwich tern
• Scarlet-chested sunbird
• Scarlet-tufted sunbird
• Scopoli’s shearwater
• Sedge warbler
• Senagal lapwing
• Senegal batis
• Senegal coucal
• Senegal eremomela
• Senegal parrot
• Senegal thick-knee
• Sharpe’s apalis
• Shelley’s eagle owl
• Shikra
• Shinning blue-kingfisher
• Shinning drongo
• Sierra leone prinia
• Siffling cisticola
• Simple greenbul
• Singing cisticola
• Slender-billed greenbul
• Slender-billed weaver
• Small buttonquail
• Snowy-crowned robin-chat
• Sooty boubou
• Sooty tern
• Speckled pigeon
• Speckled tinkerbird

• Speckle-fronted weaver
• Splendid glossy-starling
• Splendid sunbird
• Spot-breasted ibis
• Spotted flycatcher
• Spotted greenbul
• Spotted honeyguide
• Spotted redshank
• Spur-winged goose
• Spur-winged lapwing
• Squacco heron
• Square-tailed sawwing
• Standard-winged nightjar
• Stone partridge
• Streaky-breasted flufftail
• Striated heron
• Striped kingfisher
• Sub-alpine warbler
• Sulphur-breasted bush-shrike
• Sun lark
• Superb sunbird
• Swallow-tailed bee-eater
• Swamp flycatcher
• Swamp greenbul
• Swamp nightjar
• Tambourine dove
• Tawny eagle
• Tawny pipit
• Tawny-flanked prinia
• Temminick’s courser
• Temmnick’s stint
• Temneh parrot
• Tessmann’s flycatcher
• Thick-billed cuckoo
• Thick-billed weaver
• Tiny sunbird
• Tit-hylia
• Togo paradise-whydah
• Tree pipit
• Tropical boubou
• Tufted duck
• Turati’s boubou
• Ussher’s flycatcher
• Variable indigobird
• Variable sunbird
• Verreaux’s eagle-owl
• Vieillot’s barbet
• Vieillot’s weaver
• Village indigobird
• Village weaver
• Vinaceous dove
• Violet turaco
• Violet-backed hyliota
• Violet-backed starling
• Wahlberg’s eagle
• Wattled lapwing
• West African batis
• West African seedeater
• West African wattle-eye
• Western black-headed oriole
• Western blue-bill
• Western bronze-napped pigeon
• Western nicator
• Western plantain-eater
• Western red-billed hornbill
• Western reef-heron
• Western square-tailed drongo
• Western violet-backed sunbird
• Western yellow wagtail
• Western-bearded greenbul

• Whimbrel
• Whinchat
• Whiskered tern
• Whistling cisticola
• White crested bittern
• White crested hornbill
• White helmet shrike
• White stork
• White wagtail
• White-backed night-heron
• White-backed vulture
• White-bellied kingfisher
• White-billed buffalo weaver
• White-breasted cuckoo-shrike
• White-breasted guineafowl
• White-breasted negro-finch
• White-browed forest flycatcher
• White-crowned robin-chat
• White-faced whistling duck
• White-fronted black-chat
• White-fronted plover
• White-headed lapwing
• White-necked rockfowl
• White-rumped seedeater
• White-rumped swift
• White-shouldered black-tit
• White-spotted flufftail
• White-tailed alethe
• White-tailed ant thrush
• White-throated bee-eater
• White-throated blue swallow
• White-throated greenbul
• White-winged tern
• Willock’s honeyguide
• Willow warbler
• Wilson’s storm petrel
• Winding cisticola
• Wire-tailed swallow
• Wood sandpiper
• Wood warbler
• Woodchat shrike
• Woodland kingfisher
• Woolly-necked stork
• Yellow whiskered greenbul
• Yellow-bearded greenbul
• Yellow-bellied hyliota
• Yellow-bellied wattle-eye
• Yellow-billed barbet
• Yellow-billed ox-pecker
• Yellow-billed shrike
• Yellow-billed stork
• Yellow-billed turaco
• Yellow-breasted apalis
• Yellow-browed camaroptera
• Yellow-casqued hornbill
• Yellow-crowned bishop
• Yellow-footed honeyguide
• Yellow-fronted canary
• Yellow-fronted tinkerbird
• Yellow-mantled weaver
• Yellow-mantled widowbird
• Yellow-rumped tinkerbird
• Yellow-spotted barbet
• Yellow-throated cuckoo
• Yellow-throated greenbul
• Yellow-throated longclaw
• Yellow-throated tinkerbird
• Zebra waxbill
• Zitting cisticola

Best time for Birding in Sierra Leone

The rainy season in Sierra Leone ostensibly runs from May to October, but the rains start early in May, and several species had already finished breeding by the end of June. Possibly the best time to visit is December/January when the Harmattan winds cool the country.